My Sunday school kids and I decided to make small boats of hope and write “Smile, Jesus loves you :)” on each of them so that we could give it to a person who is not smiling or someone close to us.

Once I told them what to write, this seven year old wrote “Smile, Jesus loves me” so I asked him why did he write like that cause my whole idea or lesson for the day was around giving this boat to person who is not smiling.

This young boy’s answer took me by surprise. He told me “My mother is smiling, my father is smiling but I’m not smiling so I

need this”

His honest and innocent answer got me thinking.

How many of us are so innocently honest like this seven year old?

My surprise didn’t end there.

I had the “boat of hope” that I call, which I made so I asked the rest of the class if we could give it to this boy who felt he needed it the most and to my surprise they wanted him to have it.

Do we do this growing up?

Are we sensitive of our feelings as well as the feelings of those around us?

Has growing up changed the way we feel, think and react?

Would you make yourself a boat of hope today?

Why I called it the boat of hope?

Well Noah was one of the only Godly men during the difficult and tough times. God told Noah to build the ark and he didn’t question God or ask for an action report as to why he should build the ark nor did he know why. He just built the ark and slowly he saw the big picture and the why’s and the when’s.

So when you build a boat of hope for yourself it’s a symbol of hope that God is there with you and you are not alone.